Scope and Content Note
The papers of Edward Williams Morley (1838-1923) cover the period 1833-1923. They consist primarily of correspondence, with the bulk of the letters concentrated within the years 1863-1899.
The Morley Papers are almost equally divided between family correspondence and letters from scientists and others with scientific interests. Most of the family letters are from Morley to his father, the earliest written in 1851. The letters are mainly concerned with routine family and local news, but a number of them contain comments on the progress of Morley’s experiments. A few show his fascination with new ideas outside the laboratory, such as the advent of the typewriter and the introduction of the electric streetcar and the automobile.
Among the personal letters in the collection is a group of letters from Morley’s Andover Theological Seminary roommate and lifelong friend, Myron A. Munson. The letters start in 1863 and continue to 1906 when Morley moved to West Hartford, Connecticut, including 1864 while Munson was serving in the Union Army during the Civil War.
Morley received wide recognition for the Michelson-Morley experiment that became fundamental for its importance to Einstein’s theory of relativity and for his work on the densities of oxygen and hydrogen and the ratio in which they combined to form water. His papers include letters from Albert Abraham Michelson, with whom he conducted the celebrated 1887 experiment, and William A. Noyes, who also performed research on the atomic weight of hydrogen. Though he and Morley worked independently, the letters show there was some exchange of ideas and research techniques.
European scientists represented in the collection include Henry Edward Armstrong, Herbert Brereton Baker, R. Börnstein, Wilhelm Böttger, Harold Baily Dixon, Hugo Erdmann, Phillippe-Auguste Guye, Walther Hempel, Sir William Higgins, W. M. Hicks, Baron William Thomson Kelvin, Sir Joseph Larmor, Wilhelm Ostwald, William Ramsay, Baron John William Strutt Rayleigh, and W. F. G. Swann. Among the Americans writing to Morley are Charles Francis Brush, Frank Wigglesworth Clarke, Edward Salisbury Dana, James Dwight Dana, Edward Hart, Francis Hobart Herrick, F. F. Jewett, S. P. Langley, Thomas C. Mendenhall, Dayton Clarence Miller, Charles E. Munroe, Henry S. Pritchett, F. W. Putnam, Ira Remsen, William Augustus Rogers, and Frederick Soddy.